As the latest Republican replacement for the Affordable Care Act begins its death rattle, a growing number of physicians worry that any solution Washington proposes will not fix the nation’s ailing healthcare system.

The flu season is already taking its toll on Colorado. As of Tuesday, twenty Coloradans have been hospitalized with Type A Influenza a.k.a the the flu, since August 1, when the state department of health begins tracking “flu season.”

Weeks after a veterans’ health initiative received $2.1 billion in emergency funding, the Trump administration says the private-sector Veterans Choice health care program may need adal mditiononey as early as December to avoid a disruption of care for hundreds of thousands of veterans.

News on Health Professional Radio. Today is the 29th of September 2017. Read by Tabetha Moreto. Health News

As the latest Republican replacement for the Affordable Care Act begins its death rattle, a growing number of physicians worry that any solution Washington proposes will not fix the nation’s ailing healthcare system. Doctor Brian Hill, an Atlanta urologist said: “Forget Republican or Democrat, when I look at the Affordable Care Act or the Graham-Cassidy pathway, it doesn’t matter because they are both doing a miserable job in helping people get health care.”

Insider surveys by physician recruiting firms and websites echo those sentiments. An email survey of eight hundred eighty seven physicians released today by MDLinx, a physician news aggregator, found fifty five point seven percent oppose or strongly oppose the Graham-Cassidy plan, while only nineteen point eight percent support or strongly support it. About twenty five percent of respondents were neutral. Dozens of major medical associations, such as the American Medical Association, American College of Physicians, American Diabetes Association, American Heart Association and American Cancer Society, have released statements opposing the Graham-Cassidy replacement for the Affordable Care Act, and many opposed its predecessor. In what’s considered the final blow for the latest GOP proposal, the Congressional Budget Office released a partial report late Monday which said it would result in “millions fewer people with comprehensive health insurance that covers high-cost medical events.”

Released in July as part of the Medicus Firm’s two thousand seventeen annual report on physician practice and relocation preferences, a random sample of two thousand three hundred fifty one doctors from fifty states and more than twenty specialties were asked to more widely grade the Trump administration’s impact on health care policy –fifty five percent of those who responded gave the administration a failing grade.

It may only be September, but already, flu season is taking its toll on Colorado. As of Tuesday, twenty Coloradans have been hospitalized with Type A Influenza also known as the flu, since August one , when the state department of health begins tracking “flu season.”Doctor Rachel Herlihy said : “That’s roughly double what we would normally see in Colorado this time of year.” Those are only the people hospitalized. Many others may have had the virus, but avoided hospitalization. It’s not too early to get your flu shot. Once you are vaccinated, it takes about two weeks for the antibodies to develop in your body to become an effective defense against the virus. Getting a flu shot protects you, as well as those around you, from the spread of the virus.

The government recommends everyone over the age of six months get a flu shot. Those most at risk include young kids, pregnant women, older folks over the age of sixty five, and people with certain medical conditions. There are many providers who offer low or no-cost services around Colorado for the vaccine.

Weeks after a veterans’ health initiative received two point one billion dollars in emergency funding, the Trump administration says the private-sector Veterans Choice health care program may need additional money as early as December to avoid a disruption of care for hundreds of thousands of veterans. The Department of Veterans Affairs said in a statement Tuesday that it hoped to move quickly on a proposed long-term legislative fix that would give veterans even wider access to private doctors. The proposal, under review by the White House Office of Management and Budget, would seek money to keep Choice running for much of next year as VA implements wider changes. On Capitol Hill, the House Veterans Affairs Committee was already anticipating that the emergency funding approved in August may not last the full six months, according to spokespeople for both Republican and Democratic members on the panel. They cited the VA’s past problems in estimating Choice program cost. That committee and the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee said they were closely monitoring the situation.…. Garry Augustine, executive director of Disabled American Veterans’ Washington headquarters, said recent discussions with VA also gave him little confidence. In its statement to The Associated Press, VA said it could not say for certain when Choice funds would be depleted, but acknowledged that it could be as early as December or as late as March. Earlier this year, the VA began limiting referrals to outside doctors as money began to run low and veterans reported delays in care. The VA proposal for a long-term fix is expected to be released in the coming weeks. The latest funding woes come amid political disagreement over the future direction of VA and its troubled Choice program, which was passed by Congress in two thousand fourteen in response to a wait-time scandal at the Phoenix VA medical center that spread nationwide. Some veterans died while waiting months for appointments as VA employees manipulated records to hide delays. Choice currently allows veterans to receive outside care if they must wait thirty days or more for an appointment or drive more than forty miles to a VA facility. But the program has encountered long delays of its own.

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